Arhitectura peisagera: Informatii, Critica si Idei.

Nile River, trans-border concerns.

The Nile is the longest river in the world, originating from two sources: Nyanza (Victoria) Lake and Lake Tana, Ethiopia. The White Nile rises in the Nyanza Lake and flows north through, Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan where it meets the Blue Nile in Khartoum.

Nyanza Lake (Lake Victoria), View from Bulago Island

Sunset over the Nile, Jinja, Uganda

Nyanza Lake (Victoria) is the second largest freshwater lake in the world, and the Sudd wetland in South Sudan is considered to be one of the world’s largest freshwater wetland. The river flows North through the Sudanese desert to Egypt where it drains through a large delta into the Mediterranean Sea.

Village in the swamps of the White Nile near Bor, Jonglei, South Sudan, Photo by Yann Arthus Bertrand

Historically, both inter and intra state conflict characterizes the Nile Basin, but also ecological conflicts. In the early 1900’s, a shortage of cotton in the world market put pressure on Egypt and the Sudan, then under a British-Egyptian rule, to turn to this summer crop into a perennial one, requiring intensive irrigation, driving an intensive period of water technology development along the Nile River.

Over centuries, large groups of population have migrated into the floodplains of the Nile Basin mainly due to the severe environmental problems such as: droughts, soil erosion, famine but also fragmentation of land ownership, land degradation by selling of the fertile soil for brick manufacturing. Currently, agricultural and grazing lands are being degraded, water quality is declining, wetlands and forests are being lost, over-exploitation of natural resources is continuing, pollution from urban, water-borne diseases and the harmful impact of floods and droughts.

Cattle Farming, Nile, Source: National Geographic

The present economy of the area is highly dependent on the natural environment, though the ecosystem services such as breeding area for freshwater fish, natural habitat for the Nile crocodile and the threatened hippopotamus, source of water and dry-season grazing land for livestock, agriculture practices such as food crops such as sorghum and cash crops such as ground nuts.

MAJOR BOTTLENECKS

Dams after dams. Supported by bilateral donors and under global commitments to green energy, the Nile River has been filled with numerous dams, and many more dam projects alike are pending approval, finance or lobby.

The Nile has been used to transport goods between countries prior the colonialism period, as the winter wind blows south, so ships could sail upstream by sailing, and downstream using the water flow. Now river transport is not possible unless between reservoirs through kayaks and small fishing boats, but the century`s improvements in air, rail, and highway facilities have greatly reduced dependency on the waterway, giving space to development of industries on the river instead.

The Sudanese government plans to turn the the only fertile stretch of land in Northern Sudan into five reservoirs. Source: International Rivers (.org)

In Uganda for instance, a group of local experts has managed to get approved by the local authority a buffer zone on the Nile where the spatial planning and infrastructure intervention are not allowed. Or “were’, until the Government decided to build another dam, in the buffer zone. Building dams does not only affects the transport, but as well the ecology, ecosystem services, livelihoods and people`s behaviors regarding land use and community organization. Same community that is being directly affected by the dams construction are paying usually un-subsidized electricity bills.

2. Politics. The 1959 agreement entitles Egypt and Sudan to have a considerable share of water, while considerable amount of the rest of the water evaporates in Lake Nasser, which was created due to the Aswan High Dam in Egypt, leaving very small share for the nine other states that share the Nile’s waters. Other agreements were made between Egypt and Ethiopia in 1902, Britain and Congo in 1906, Britain- France – Italy (no East African Country included or consulted) in 1906, Egypt and Sudan in 1992. At the date of any of these agreements, no other countries along the Nile have been consulted than the signatories. Nowadays the Nile River waters are continuous subject of dispute.

3. Water pollution. With the dry seasons, the levels of pollution of the Nile water are critically rising. The low water levels and high pollution could result in environmental disasters, mass poisoning due to polluted drinking water and famine caused by drought. The water is being cleaned by the instant release of sufficient quantities of water that will drain the pollution downstream and then into the Mediterranean, affecting all communities on the route. Furthermore, the water scarcity will accentuate as the cities grow.

Perfect storm over Lake Victoria

Today, the largest lake in Africa is the center of a perfect storm of environmental crises: chemical and raw sewage pollution; overfishing; a plague of water hyacinth plants; exploding algae blooms that suffocate flora and fauna. Additionally, the lake’s border is shrinking by as much as 150 feet in some places. Forty million Africans in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania are dependent on Lake Victoria for their livelihoods and sustenance making this one of the worst unfolding environmental disasters.

4. Climate Change is affecting the River Nile and the dependent communities through different aspects. Primarily, the irregular weather patterns, resulting in droughts or intensive rainfall, affecting the land use, safety and health of the people using the river water on its entire length. Secondary, the human settlements activities that directly or indirectly have interfered and interfere with the water ecology though: pollution, industry, loss of reed and lack of skills in protection and creation of areas with wetland vegetation that can capture, retain clan and drain the water. The human activity may increase the climate related risks, recently adding desertification and soil erosion in the Nile River Basin.

Mediterranean sea level rise (due to climate change) is affecting vegetation and farming along the fertile Nile River Delta

The environmental issues occurred along and in the river Nile over the past century has changed not only the quality and use of river water but as well the land use on the surrounding areas. Numerous activities have been conducted, including research, petitions, pilot projects and trans-border agreements have been advocated to local and national authorities. However the importance of water and ecology has a weak standing to decision makers, while the investment in assets such as electricity (for self-sufficiency – in the case of Ethiopia) or for export (in the case of Uganda) are far more important in the current development process.

There are major gaps between planning and smart use of the Nile River Basin as an international asset, as planning/ land use frameworks are not only missing but they can hardly be agreed upon given the instability of trans-border partnerships.The accountability of dams, industrial zones, zones of intensive agronomic practices and unplanned human settlements have failed to give directions towards improving the ecological systems in the Nile River Basin.

In 2016, the Nile River is polluted from the Source. The Nile River Basin is not a river any longer, but a sum of reservoirs and dams lacking a holistic management influence of agro-industrial effluents on its entire length.

I am further interested to know what is the civil society response/ reaction to decisions and actions that impact so heavily their environment. If you have access to such research or examples, kindly drop me a message.